Michiel Steltman
Managing Director at Digitale Infrastructuur Nederland (DINL)
‘If you want to take your company in a certain direction, you don’t want bullshit.
Michiel Steltman
At Ynvolve, they know that.’
He’s always been ‘a digital man’. Frankly, he still is. Technology, yes sir, that’s what makes him tick. Still, at an early stage in his career, Michiel Steltman moved to the business side of the IT world. Because he is not only that digital guy but also a smooth talker. That combination came in damn handy when he started a hosting cloud company with a couple of enthusiasts at the turn of the century. Good times, says Michiel, great things accomplished, but in the end, the company was pushed by the shareholders in a direction he didn’t appreciate. So he left in 2010, deciding it was time to face a new challenge. In those days, every company claimed ‘we are the internet’ but also stated ‘your IT environment shouldn’t rely on it’. For Michiel, that was nonsense. And that’s an understatement. Nodes, data centers, and hosting clouds, that was the internet. That is the internet. In those days, the big guys may have responded condescendingly regarding those thoughts, but Michiel knew better. So he got together with a group of like-minded people and sat down with them. Ready to explain his views to politicians in The Hague, and the rest of the Netherlands for that matter. To tell them what the digital future would really look like. And then reach out with a helping hand to the government, finding solutions for social and digital problems, ensuring there would be no accidents in the digital future. With the assistance of like-minded companies. Companies like Ynvolve. It worked well, that idea. In fact, while many companies initially chose a hostile attitude towards DINL – Digital Infrastructure Nederland –, not much later, virtually the entire sector embraced the idea, convinced it was important. Suddenly they were a rising star. DINL was a hit, published in all the newspapers, attracting a lot of international attention. Even King Willem Alexander. Michiel Steltman smiles when he talks about Ynvolve. They are heroes, in his opinion. Not only because they grasped – contrary to many others – the importance of a digital ecosystem, but they also understood it was vital to keep the system healthy and keep informing the press and politicians. Ynvolve is one of a handful of partners in the sector, Michiel says, who understand. They also appreciate that caretaking is very important in the digital economy. Michiel even calls this caretaking the holy grail. ‘If you want to take your company in a certain direction, you don’t want bullshit. You want products, updates, but above all, you want certainty. At Ynvolve, they know that. You pay them and don’t need to look over your shoulder. That is vision. And when you combine that vision with hard work, you get Ynvolve.’
